From Mind to Lab

On Saturday morning, Mo is up early and has breakfast on his apartment balcony. It's unseason-ably warm. He chews on an energy bar-a habit from his race days. He enjoys a cappuccino, freshly brewed with his new expresso machine, and listens to the local news coming from his living room TV. He hears "female bike race" and thinks this must be one of the events for which Marie had been training. He gets up from his chair and watches the broadcast. He learns that the race is in Bardolino, along Lake Garda and backed by the Italian Alps, and will start in a few hours. Mo plans to watch only the first of four rounds of the race; each round consists of a pass through town. About 40 minutes after the racers set out, they return to town on their first lap; the field is still grouped, but a few riders have already dropped back.